I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I loved this movie. The title is great and symbolic of the movie. The title Chumscrubber comes from a video game played by the kids. After all the big bombs go off the city is filled with mutants. One man decides to rid the city of the evil mutants or Chum, hence he is the Chumscrubber. The ironic part is that the Chumscrubber's head is detached from his body, i.e. he is a mutant also, but doesn't realize he is part of the problem. This is symbolic of the community. Everyone lives in their own little idea world and ignores anything that would change it. The details in the movie is interesting as the people are neat freaks. In one scene, the mother straightens up papers on a table, that already appear straight. If you notice when they are in the garage, there is no clutter. Everything is clean and in its place. The attention to detail, the odd twists, and vibrant personalities makes this a must see for anyone with half an intellect.

I'd never heard of this film until watching it today, & what a shame that is! The title may have been off-putting to mass-distribution, but it's a clever metaphor for the allegory of oblivious parents in a sunny, picture-perfect California suburb. The children of these parents are completely jaded & disconnected; the parents, who skim the surface of their daily routines, have no idea who their children are or what they do---& therein lies the clincher. The plot unfolds after a pivotal event shakes up the balance of suburbia.The satire is sharp, well-written, & a perfect foil for our modern society. This is "Leave it to Beaver" meets "Halloween" in some ways; suburbia is not what it appears, & danger is lurking in every sunny, well-planned street. The parents, in my opinion, have the same kind of moral disconnect---leaving no moral impressions upon their children for them to learn & grow with---that one imagines could happen with those who "act out" as the Columbine killers or the Virginia Tech killer did...No one paid any attention; no one had the depth to care & notice that something was terribly amiss. Everyone is so busy with "activities" that no one has any awareness.This is a great little gem of a movie that is well worth your time---don't miss it!

This film has many positive points and many negative points. The two ultimately end up canceling each other and at the end of the film I personally ended up with nothing. The cast is simply brilliant and each and every identifiable character is well-developed and performed extremely well by an unbelievably long series of excellent actors. Being a first venture for the writer/director this shows how many people believed in the project and were ready to commit to it. Sadly what now follows is the negative part of my review. The direction, albeit very good, is also laden with numerous clichés, which after a while start being the only noticeable features of the film. While viewing the film I was slowly removed from the story and started to see all the other films it reminded me of, and sadly it was not a short list*. This fact disconnected me from it eventually and I couldn't appreciate it anymore. This fact, coupled with the fact that the writer/director claims he is shining a spotlight on a subject that is muted was irritating actually, because it was blatantly false, because even though the closest to life in American suburbia I ever was, was a month long trip in 1998, I still got the same message from this film as I got from a number of films before it. One other thing that left me a bit perplexed was some characters' behaviour. I don't mean the offbeat or eccentric behaviours of some of the characters. Those were plausible and perfectly at home with the plot of the film. What I mean is the illogical behaviour of some characters, mainly the teenagers, starting from an academically bright "good lad" (even though fleeing from over-protective and ambitious parents), and a girl who at first glance seems to be good natured, passively agreeing to the whims of an antisocial thug to the point of kidnap and threat of murder, with the latter tolerating obvious flirtation with her own mother, while the former, suddenly blows into a desperate murderous rage, and accepts the fact that the person who initially proposed the murder would not have any part in it. The fact that people who seem to dislike each other have repeated conversations on the telephone in the evening, and finally the issue about drugs: I might have missed a crucial metaphor here, but throughout the film one sees drugs of some kind being distributed to virtually everyone in school, and people pop them here and there and get an instant relief, almost as fast as an injection. The main character ingests psychiatric medication almost by the handful on an "as required" basis (akin to using an asthma inhaler) with virtually no effect apart from satisfying his father, and finally when an incredible amount of a variety of drugs is put in a casserole by a child relatively silent and yet intent on sabotage to the rest of his family beyond belief. This results in a number of supposedly drug-naive individuals at a wake, ingesting an amount of crushed pills meant to supply a whole high-school at once, and only end up laughing and being promiscuous with no further consequence. I found that to be disturbing. Well to end this rather long comment, I think this writer director has potential and certainly commands respect from people who count. I hope this film (somewhat undeservedly) gets him enough success to enable him to make further movies which he himself can relate more to, in order to have more heart and truly be an original work free from the weight of previous films dictating its impact.* I'd recommend to watch the missing child sequence from "The Phantom of Liberty" by Luis Bunuel for example.

At February 2008 I rated this alongside The Quiet as the best of the first four of Cammie's features as a young woman, but Stranger as the quality Cammie acting in the four. Now I also rate this as quality acting as well. I find it difficult to rate the acting of Camilla Belle as my first impressions tend to be that it is worse than it actually is, as if there is a barrier. My problem with Jack and Rose is just the storytelling style, not the acting at all. The Quiet, for me this starts with Belle's acting feeling squashed, memories of Trachtenberg at the very start and end of Clausen's Pier, also Belle in 10000BC. To really enjoy the Quiet I have to apply tolerance to the first ten minutes. I rate Annie 2 and Practical Magic even higher than these, but they are two very different types of amazing story. Few features attain the level of Practical Magic even though it does not seem to attract many positive professional reviews. Griffin Dunne's Fierce People also gets a dearth of positive attention, except from fans, despite it being as amazing as Practical Magic. It is as if there is a barrier there. * There is a question of just what this feature is about and that could be a rather personal thing. I found the DVD's commentary and Making Of to give useful extra detail for musing on one's own personalised interpretation. This is a way better commentary than most. They even help me to smile more when Fiennes first notices the purposes of the school mural. To quote a Katherine Applegate 'Making Out' novel, reality is humorous for those who think but tragic for those who feel. Chumscrubber and The Quiet have the tragedy, but in a way that allows it to be tolerable. There does not appear to be a prescription for the insanity that abounds here, but how Jamie and Cammie develop can be taken as a hint.